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Khan: I want to beat Garcia and Peterson before I move up to 147

By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) has set a goal for himself before he moves up to the welterweight division to go after the big names in that weight class. Khan wants to avenge his losses to WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia and IBF champion Lamont Peterson before he steps up in weight to the welterweight division.

Khan said to espn.co.uk “I still want to fight at 140 pounds and win titles before I look at stepping up. I am still happy at this weight but not many fighters want to take me on. The main two I want are Peterson and Garcia, but they couldn’t happen at this time.”

Khan is scheduled to fight next month against Julio Diaz (40-7-1, 29 KO’s) on April 27th Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

It’s interesting that Khan isn’t mentioning WBC interim light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse’s name because he might be the best fighter in the entire division right now, and Khan is saying nothing about him. I wonder if that’ll change if Matthysse beats Peterson in their fight on May 18th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

It’ll look weird if Khan persists with his desire to fight Peterson after he gets beaten by Matthysse. It’ll just make Khan look like he’s totally ducking Matthysse.

Matthysse end up taking out both Garcia and Peterson in 2013, so if Khan wants to fight those guys then there’s a good chance he’ll be facing them after they’ve taken losses to Matthysse.

If Khan is setting a goal for himself to beating Garcia and Peterson before moving up to 147, then I think he needs to downsize his goals a little bit to something more attainable. I mean, Khan is probably never going to beat those two guys no matter how many times he faces them, and he’ll only get beaten and exposed again if he chooses to mix it up again with each of them.

It would be better for Khan to continue to face 2nd tier guys like Carols Molina and Julio Diaz because those guys are more up his alley than trying to take on Garcia and Peterson again and ending up losing for the second time against both.